Renal Unit Home Therapies Team Wins Prestigious Award

06/07/2018

Congratulations to the Western Trust's Renal Unit Home Therapies Team at Altnagelvin Hospital who won the Patients’ Choice Award at the 2018 RCNi Nursing Awards, held in London this week.

The team (Alison Cairns, Bridgeen Canning and Caroline McCloskey) were the only entrants from Northern Ireland to have been shortlisted for the Patients’ Choice Award. They were nominated by Carmel and Joe McMonagle for their commitment to patient welfare and involvement, before being selected for a five-strong shortlist that was put to a public vote. Thousands of people took part in the voting, with the Renal Team emerging as winners.

On behalf of the Renal Unit Home Therapies Team, Alison Cairns, Home Therapies Nurse said: “We are totally delighted! This has been such an amazing experience.

“The process of public voting has allowed us to talk about what we do and has helped raise awareness of chronic kidney disease. We are all proud to be nurses but winning this award we realised we've done nursing proud as well.”

Joe McMonagle and his wife Carmel also attended the awards ceremony with the Renal Unit team. Joe said: “Both Carmel and myself are delighted that Alison, Bridgeen and Caroline won the Patients Choice Award last night. This thoroughly deserved Award is their patients’ way of saying thank you to the team for all their hard work, dedication, commitment and compassion over the years. A brilliant achievement for an outstanding team of Nurses!”

Expressing her congratulations, Chief Executive of the Western Trust, Dr Anne Kilgallen said: “I am enormously proud of Bridgeen, Caroline and Alison for winning this outstanding award. This is a remarkable achievement for the Renal Unit Home Therapies team and is so well deserved.

“As a team they go beyond the call of duty for their patients and their families and this is very apparent having been awarded as winners in the ‘Patients’ Choice’ category.”